SARAH FLEISS
Soprano
Described as "bright" and "stylish" by Opera News, American soprano Sarah Fleiss completed her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees at the Curtis Institute of Music. For the 2025/26 season she joins the 12th edition of Le Jardin des Voix with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie and Paul Agnew. She will travel internationally with the group over 2025, 2026, and 2027 singing La Poésie in Les arts florissants and Proserpine in La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers by Marc Antoine Charpentier conducted by William Christie, and La Speranza in Il giardino di rose by Scarlatti conducted by Paul Agnew. In the fall, she looks forward to touring across Latin America with Curtis on Tour, singing Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock, a selection of songs from West Side Story and Peter Pan by Leonard Bernstein, and premiering a newly commissioned song cycle by composer Rene Orth. She also brings a recital of English song to The Woodmere Art Museum and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the Trust Performing Arts Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in collaboration with pianist Nikolay Verevkin.
This past 2024/25 season, Sarah sang Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at Curtis in a production by Marcus Shields with conductor Nicholas McGegan. A devoted recitalist, she brought a program of Folk Music to Washington Performing Arts, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, and the Harvard Musical Association with collaborator Delvan Lin. On the concert stage, she debuted with Tempesta di Mare in a program of early American music, with Hudson Baroque singing Handel's Messiah, and with the Dalton Chorale in the Brahms Requiem. She also joined J'nai Bridges for her residency recital in Field Hall at Curtis and at the Greene Space in NYC, and for her Master's Degree created a lecture recital based on the life and performances of Anna Moffo, famed Curtis alumna. This summer, she presented a recital of French song with pianist Matthieu Cognet, attended the Georg Solti Bel Canto Accademia in Tuscany, and won the Mascarde Opera Prize from the 2025 Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino.
In the 2023/24 she sang the Vixen in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, in Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Curtis Opera Theater and in the final trio of Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. She made exciting debuts with the Dolce Suono Ensemble, as the soprano soloist in the Fauré Requiem with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and in Poulenc's Gloria and Dvořák's Te Deum with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She also sang in the Ned Rorem Memorial Concert at Curtis and brought a recital to Core Memory Music in Rhode Island and to Young Musicians Musicale in Philadelphia. Over the summer, she travelled to the Aspen Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist, covering Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and singing in a baroque concert with conductor Nicholas McGegan.
Over the 2022/23 season, she sang Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante under the baton of David Stern and with the Tempesta di Mare orchestra and went on tour with Eric Owens and members of the Curtis Opera Theater, singing the Brahms Neue Liebeslieder Op. 65. Along with Curtis Ensemble 20/21, she premiered In the Fields, a song cycle written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León and performed in a recital with Warren Jones. In the summer, she travelled to Houston for HGO YAVA and to Switzerland to attend the Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival where she worked closely with pianist James Baillieu and participated in masterclasses with Lise Davidsen, Thomas Hampson, Véronique Gens and James Garnon. She has also sung in masterclasses with Barbara Hannigan, Peter Sellars, Renée Fleming, Sonia Prina, Dolora Zajick, Golda Schultz, Christine Goerke, Matt Aucoin, George Jackson, and Julia Bullock.
Sarah was named the 2025 winner of the Arthur W. Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association, a Capital district winner from the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the 2024 MI Opera Competition, the 2023 Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, the emerging artist winner of the Rochester Oratorio Society Competition and the winner of the 2022 Shirley Rabb Winston Scholarship by the National Society of Arts and Letters. She has received grants from the George London Foundation, Voce di Meche, and Gerda Lissner Foundation, and awards from the Opera Index Foundation, Orpheus Vocal Competition, the Camile Coloratura Awards, and the Mascarade Opera Foundation.
Prior to Curtis, Sarah attended Columbia University and the Juilliard-Exchange program. At Columbia, she sang Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with the Columbia New Opera Workshop, and narrated Stravinsky’s L'Histoire du soldat. She has also performed around New York City various in musical theater and cabaret-style performances, including the Irish Repertory Theatre and at NYU.
Pamina │ The Magic Flute │ Columbia New Opera Workshop
"Sarah Fleiss displayed a gorgeous soprano voice with varying colors... she brought lighter colors that displayed the slickness and innocence of her character... and a lushness as she displayed shyness and hesitance at first, followed by desire, tenderness, and love. Her voice expanded, filling the auditorium and bringing all these new emotions to the fore. There were also some gorgeous piano lines, especially as she questioned herself in front of the mirror... then that sense of fear from the beginning was gone and she displayed defiance... she brought out a powerful soprano that emphasized her willingness to defend herself from anything. It was a complete character development."
- OPERAWIRE, The Cunning Little Vixen
Vixen │ The Cunning Little Vixen │ Curtis Opera Theater
Tracie Van Auken
“Sarah Fleiss, nearly ready for professional stages as Ginevra… [with] her fluid tone and pinpoint accuracy furnished consistent enjoyment, and commanded a reliable, authentic trill. She acted credibly in joy and sorrow”
-OPERA NEWS, Ariodante
Ginevra │ Ariodante │ Curtis Opera Theater
Photo by Ashley Smith, Wide Eyed Studios